What do you take in to account when picking pokemon for a party?

I take into account the typing of my Pokemon, and what moves it can learn to counter its weaknesses, for example my Ampharos knows Fire Punch, Discharge, Power Gem and Signal Beam. I also take into account what Pokemon other people use most often, and how to counter them, for example, I have no Dragon types on my team, but my high-Speed-high-Attack-Ice-Punch-Weavile totally decimates any Dragon type. I also take into account whether my Pokemon can inflict status ailments like Burn, Paralysis and Sleep (Using Toxic to inflict bad poison is annoying as well, after a few turns the poison starts inflicting massive damage.) To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, my current team consists of Emboar, Ampharos, Lilligant, Lucario, Gliscor and Weavile.
 
I sometimes just go in blindly and if I encounter a Pokémon on a route that for some reason I suddenly want on my team, I'll just catch it and use!
 
Type is the key one for me. If possible, I like dual types so that I can get two STABs, and no overlaps at all. I'd rather have a team of six single-type critters than a team of six double-typers with overlap. Partially it's because of me being anal, but I really like as much diversity as possible. After that comes base stats: I'd rather have stronger Pokemon than weaker Pokemon (except legendaries, which I don't really use at all). After that, I'm not really fussed, but a good movepool wouldn't go amiss, and though it's nice to like the Pokemon that I'm using from an aesthetic standpoint, it's not always a necessity for me.
 
My goal is to have a party such that, for any type of opponent:

  • I have at least one pokemon that is offensively strong to it (preferably STAB) and at least defensively neutral, and preferably defensively strong.

  • I have no more than two pokemon who are defensively weak to it.
Beyond that, for an ideal party, I want a fast, powerful lead with a free switch move and at least one tank/wall/cleric. That's not as crucial though - type matchups are the most important part, by far.


At this point, I don't really stop and think about it. I've done it so much for so long that it's pretty much automatic. But the way I used to do it was to put together what I thought was a good party, then to just run through all the types and check to make sure that whatever I faced, I had at least one that was offensively strong and no more than two who were defensively weak.
 
It's difficult to choose an ideal party in a first run through, but I try to pick as much diversity as possible to not get doubled easily by one attacking type. I also have to pick a good Water and Flying type Pokemon for Surf and Fly, respectively.
 
Arlo said:
My goal is to have a party such that, for any type of opponent:

  • I have at least one pokemon that is offensively strong to it (preferably STAB) and at least defensively neutral, and preferably defensively strong.

  • I have no more than two pokemon who are defensively weak to it.
Beyond that, for an ideal party, I want a fast, powerful lead with a free switch move and at least one tank/wall/cleric. That's not as crucial though - type matchups are the most important part, by far.


At this point, I don't really stop and think about it. I've done it so much for so long that it's pretty much automatic. But the way I used to do it was to put together what I thought was a good party, then to just run through all the types and check to make sure that whatever I faced, I had at least one that was offensively strong and no more than two who were defensively weak.
Click to expand...

This is actually pretty similar to what my program does actually.
It automatically generates a chart that shows you how 'rank' against a type, and that rank is calculated through counting how many attacks/pokemon you have that are strong/weak against that type, with the entire breakdown of the calculations shown as well. It will show you which types your party is strongest against and weakest against. And when put beside the '# of pokemon' column (which shows how many pokemon of that type exist in the game) it's easy to see where the holes are in a party and to (hopefully) provide enough info to fix.
 
I always like diversity in my teams. Usually I already pre-define the first two members of my team (the grass-type starter, and flying-type bird which is basically my personal jet.)

In my entire career in Pokemon, I have had all types in my Elite 4 team except for two: Dragon and Fairy (duh).
 
The main point is that a party of mine always contains a starter and that it covers many types ( at least 8 by base type and all 17 by moves, and at least 8 STAB). Also, three of the types of my Pokémon are Water, Fire and Grass. The most important part is that I don't want any overflows (i.e, no repeated types or moves) through the party, and no unnecessary movelists. I would either take HM Slaves or make temporary slots for the field uses, save for Surf. I would also like every Pokémon of my party to have a move that has decent power (75+) and decent accuracy (90+) with decent PP (10+) for grinding and endurance, along with a high-power move (preferably STAB, but can be without with BP being 120+) and manageable accuracy (75+) for the high-power takedowns (against strong opponents.

Next thing I'd look for is good overall stats on a Pokémon, along with ability. Basically, the party should be self-sustaining, but with also the possibility of running high-power. I typically reduce the usage of non-offensive moves, but I can make exceptions for running with Dragon Dance + Dragon Move.

So yes, I don't think my ideas suit competitive needs at all, but this is what I typically aim for during gameplay. Like many said, type coverage is the key. And every Pokémon should be capable of taking lead/powerkiller, there should be no or least dependency on a specific Pokémon to do the job in every battle. This is to cope with the gym leaders and various Elite Four members.
 
If I'm picking Pokemon for my party, I take typing, stats, and movepool into acount.

Also, I prefer not to have legendaries in my team. If I ever have a legendary in my team, it's usually one that belongs to a non-Uber trio. Examples include Zapdos, Suicune, and Terrakion.
 
Oh god this is always the hardest part. I always settle on one thing and then I say to myself no there is this guy and this guy. I just try to get things to resist eachothers weaknesses as much as I can.
 
Before I add a new Pokémon to my team, I always take three things into consideration. First, I take a good look through its ability and see if most of my other team members can benefit from it. Second, I try to see what kind of moves it's able to learn. And the third thing that I consider is if it can work well together with the rest of the party. If it's got a good ability, a good movepool, and it could be a good team-player, then I will have no problem with making this Pokémon an official member of my crew. :)
 
When picking Pokémon for my team it's always based on looks and never power. I like to have a mix of types, but I pick my favorite looking Pokémon from each one. I also only pick Pokémon from the Pokémon region I'm playing in so that I can get a feel for and enjoy each generation.
 
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I choose whichever Pokemon I think is the cutest, or try to have a team where every Pokemon is a different type.
 
I usually pick a few pokemon that I like, then build my team around them going over typings so I don't have two pokemon of the same type. See things like type advantages and weaknesses and check what move sets each pokemon has and what fits better with my playing style.

From a computer program I would like to see what pokemon I would have a challenge with if faced with my party. :D
 
It simply comes down to, "Do I like this Pokémon and do I want to use it now?" And if I've already used the same Pokémon a number of times, then I ask myself "What other Pokémon do I want to use that I've never used before?"

I'm not really picky when it comes to the Pokémon I use on my team. Sometimes I'd even play the games blindly and use whoever I feel like having on my team at the time. I think this is how I'll play through Pokémon X and Y on my first run through of the games.
 
How did You Go About Choosing Your Team?

Hello everyone! I have a deep question(or at least, what I consider deep). We are all given six slots to place Pokemon in our teams to carry around to battle with, and of course a mere six Pokemon is very small considering that we will have over 700 Pokemon soon.

So the question is, how did you go about choosing your Pokemon Team? How long have you been using that certain team? What were your thoughts when trying to create it? Do you switch out your team(or maybe switch a few Pokemon) often?

I've been playing Pokemon since the 90's when Red and Blue came out in America, and I always started over my game after I beat the Elite Four(mostly because you couldn't battle trainers twice). My team switched with every reset, experimenting with all the 151 Pokemon in the game.

As I grew older I tried for so many years to have a mono-type team, and those switched constantly as well. It wasn't until recently that mono-teams aren't for me because even though you love the type, you may not love every single Pokemon in that type. You may not even like enough to make a team of six!

If you look at my signature, you will see my current team and I feel that I will have this team for a long time. I chose Blastoise, Magmortar, Venusaur and Golurk because I perceive them to be "Cannon" Pokemon. Either by their appearance or how they attack they represent a living cannon. Now don't ask me why I love cannons because I don't know, I just think that they're darn cool :P.

Ever since I was a small kid I loved trains so this is where my Dusknoir comes in. Dusknoir reminds me of a train station worker with his appearance and Dusknoir also attacks by opening up his stomach-face a lot of the time which also represents some kind of cannon-like appearance. My favorite Holiday is Halloween which is why my favorite type is the Ghost type. You may have noticed that I have two ghost types in my team :P.

And finally I have dunsparce. He's in there because I connect with this Pokemon the most, he's my favorite because he's so derpy and cute :3. He has to be in my team no matter what, you could say that he's my pokemon as Pikachu is to Ash.

So there you have it. What about all of you?
 
How did You Go About Choosing Your Team?

I usually have a Rapidash in the first slot. When I was littler, I caught a cute little Ponyta in Pokémon Diamond and I had it ever since. I got it at like level 9 and evolved it and eventually got it to level 94. (My save got messed up in the end, so I lost her.) but ever since, I've just felt some kind of connection to that Pokémon, you know?
 
If memory serves, and it doesn't, I usually make sure I always have my generational favorite or two favorites in no matter what, and everyone else is just whoever can help me win the fastest. For example, Kirlia and Mawile were on my Sapphire team, along with probably Swampert and God knows whoever else.

Whenever a Nidoran female is a catchable option, Nidorina's a permanent fixture to the team. No exceptions.

When playing Yellow years ago when it first came out, I had my team match Ash's at the time in the anime. They all had terrible movesets, too.

So I guess that's all there is to it. The perfect marriage of favoritism and indifference.
 
ya I just go for looks before elite four.
though I like taking a cute weak pokemon and finding just the right setup to make it a contender. I end up liking that more than making a purely comptetive team.
 
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